– film –

Peter Sempel

The Hamburg-based film-maker Peter Sempel accompanied over a period of several years the renovator of Free Jazz on his trip around the globe.
The pictures of this voyage from Wuppertal to New York – San Francisco – London – Warsaw – to Shenzen (China) provide a deep poetic insight into the sonic and visual worlds of this fascinating artist.

The dialogues with musicians of different cultures opens the view on the subtle psyche of this probably most radical innovator of free music.

Illias Ntais (production)

Jazz Soup – a film about the jazz orchestra The Dorf, Saturday 11:30
This is a film about living in a very special ‘village’ (called ‘Dorf’ in german). Not a typical orchestra nor a typical bigband. „The Dorf“ is a living organism, which continuously mutates in new directions. The music is a voyage through the tradition of jazz-experimentation in which soundtextures and instruments deny to take a particular shape. The film documents the collabrotaion of the musicians and the concerts of The Dorf. Jan Klare – the conductor: More than just a conductor Jan Klare is head and heart of The Dorf. Since the 80’s Jan has been working as composer and saxophone player in several formations and musical styles. This particular ‘Dorf’ is way-point as destiny of Jans voyage.

The voyage of the soup: Each month a secret ingredient is transported from Münster to Dortmund where The Dorf performs concerts at the domicil on a regular basis. A ritual that goes back to the very beginning of ‚The Dorf’ is a collective soup diner jus before a concert. The film documents this short roadtrip and transport of the soup to the concerthall. This trip allows an intimate insight into the successstory of „The Dorf“.

The Jazzsoup – the film is a collaboration of Jorgos Katsimitsoulias, Alexander Kersting and Ilias Ntais

Pavel Borodin

Musicmovies, Sunday 11:30

Comicoperando in Amsterdam (D/NE, 2012, 38 Min.)

A tribute to the music of Robert Wyatt

The project „Comicoperando“ is a hommage to the music of Robert Wyatt, the legendary singer and drummer of the Canterbury Scene and refers to his soloalbum „Comicopera“ (2007). The project was founded by befriended musicians which interpreted some of his songs. In May 2011 Dagmar Krause (vocals), Karen Mantler (Hammond B3, vocals), Annie Whitehead (trombone), Michel Delville (guitar), John Edwards (bass) and Chris Cutler (drums) performed at the famous Amsterdam “Bimhuis”. The Film shows excerpts of the concert as well as lengthy interviews with the musicians about their encounters with Robert Wyatt and how the project “Comicoperando” grew.

Ship Lock (D, 2008, 11 Min.)

This shortfilm was realised in a rainy night in September 2007 in the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze Kiang river in China. The three-hour sluicing shrinked to 10 minutes of dark industrial pictures. Originally intended as a documentation the film changed during postproduction to a music video.Trailer

Andrea Neumann performs “Water Walk” by John Cage (D, 2012, 5 Min.)

In 1960 John Cage presentd during a TV-Show his work “Water Walk”. 54 Years later this performance has nothing lost of its exciting, amazing and mind-blowing character. On the 100th birthday of John Cage the german musician Andrea Neumann restaged the performance in a lightflooded room at the A L’ARME! Festival in Berlin.

Phil Minton & dieb13 – Im Pavillon (D/Ö, 2013, 26 Min.)

A short duo concert at the Music Unlimted Festival 2009 in Wels (Austria) with Phil Minton (voice) and dieb13 (Dieter Kovačič, turntables).

Simon Nabatov’s Roundup (D, 2014, 80 Min.)

In December 2009 the Cologne-based russian-american jazz pianist and composer Simon Nabotov realized a three-piece project „Roundup“ by working with his favourite four musicians: Nils Wogram (trombone), Matthias Schubert (tenorsaxophone), Ernst Reijseger (cello) und Tom Rainey (drums). During four days the musicians rehearsed as a quintet and two trios, recorded and performed live. Thius film shows excerpts of these three phases and Nabotov, who talks about the realization of this project, his musical partners and the music which was created during the project.Ausschnitt

Despite all iconoclastic attitudes the deconstruction of a grand piano is a orgiastic celebration of sound. Moreover the swan song of a dying piano is not to heard that often.

The piano is a August Förster Flügel, fabricated 1901 in Löbau/Saxonia. Later it came to Dotmund, where it survived two world wars and should be destroyed because of suffered damages already in 1977. Thomas Lehn made it his practise instrument and saved it from destruction. So it finally made it in 1982 to the room to which I moved in 2000. However, eight years later I needed the space and so I used the opportunity to give the grand piano a suitable farewell during the Cologne Art Fair.

The performers:Hans W. Koch, Composer-Performer and Initiator of the requiem. Last owner of the grand piano.Thomas Lehn, Synthesizer virtuoso and pianist. Previous owner of the grand piano.Ben Patterson, artist and composer with lots of experience on handling pianos.Joszef Cseres, aesthetician und performer. Never played a piano before or even owned one.